Give your managers latitude. You
have to be able to trust your
subordinates and build them
up to the point where they’re
actually taking over. When you
don’t know the person yet and
don’t know how they will carry
on in making certain decisions,
it’s hard — but once that trust
is built, I find it to be easy.
When I take a person in to
run the race with me, I spend
time with them to understand
their character, understand
what drives them, understand
that they can emulate my
desires on how we ought to
treat our people.
As far as the technical skills
go, I don’t want everybody to
replicate me, but they need to
complement my skill set or
else we’re not going to have a
well-rounded company. All my
managers’ skill sets are unique
and maybe even better than
me in certain areas.
Value your employees’ opinions. We started an employee advisory
council in our company last
year. They’re the representatives
for other employees to feed
back into the council, whether
it’s on policy or different health
plans. If there are issues tied to
employees, we want to know
about it right away.
The council was our way of
trying to be able to maintain
the level of feedback and communication with all the
employees. It came about
directly as a result of the
growth and trying to maintain
the closeness.
It really is a great way for
employees to provide feedback about what’s happening
on the front lines. They’re able
to feed it back through their
representative and get the
attention that it needs right
away. It allows the employees
to feel that ownership. They’ll
understand that we’re listening
to them. It makes everyone
feel heard and feel special.
Get psyched like an Ironman. There is a physical element to
being an endurance athlete,
but it is a mental game and so
is running a business. Those
that have a long-term perspective on things are usually more
successful in the long run.
The values that we all appreciate as human beings — perseverance and persistence —
are things that are played out
in a marathon or Ironman, running a business, living a life, or
having a successful marriage.
There’s a quote I made up
when I used to do the Ironman
and would wake up at 3:30 to
swim two miles before coming
to work: The struggles of
today are the blessings of
tomorrow if we persevere.
I had to think about that a lot,
and then I would think, ‘Oh my
gosh, now I have to go and get
the employees encouraged and
motivated so they can conquer
the world.’ It’s a daunting task
if you let it be.
HOW TO REACH: Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc., (619) 702-1700 or www.epsilonsystems.com